Re: Time Delay of Magic Arcana announcement - Wow! This must be important. But not too important - big changes like the summer of 09 rules changes would not be delivered by the Arcana feature; not enough people read this section. So what do you guys think it will be? SPECULATE, DAMN IT!

I think the announcement will be that Wotc / Hasbro was bought out by the people behind the Twilight series, and from now on each expansion will be 50% vampires, and every vampire card will be foily. Also, now that they have the infrastructure/equipment to do so, they will make a MtG movie. With vampires of course.

So we get the news behind the MTG - Tactics name that was revealed a while back.

I'm hoping once the article is live we'll get some good pics to get people excited. Personally right now I'm decidedly against this game because its just another cash-grab by wizards and I have some bad experiences with SOE.

98% of people use statistics in their sigs, or have used them in the past. If you are one of the 2% that haven't or don't, place this into your signature.
New Magic Forums, Im'a let you finish, but the old Magic Forums were one of the greatest boards of all time!

Re: Time Delay of Magic Arcana announcement - Wow! This must be important. But not too important - big changes like the summer of 09 rules changes would not be delivered by the Arcana feature; not enough people read this section. So what do you guys think it will be? SPECULATE, DAMN IT!

I think the announcement will be that Wotc / Hasbro was bought out by the people behind the Twilight series, and from now on each expansion will be 50% vampires, and every vampire card will be foily. Also, now that they have the infrastructure/equipment to do so, they will make a MtG movie. With vampires of course.

Alright, here's some wild speculation to get things rolling.

I think they're going to have From the Vault: The Box Set. The big one with Every Magic Card Ever made in new holographic foil with borders randomly mixed in each of the 5 colors to make them unique. The new box will be spring loaded to emphisis "the Gathering" aspect of the game showering cards for ten foot in every direction! (I'm also waiting for a "The Gathering" UN-card... it would be fun, more evil than Chaos Confetti!)

Another speculation might be a new color in the set after WorldWake.... maybe we'll get Purple mana (although I think pink-polka-dot or plaid would be cool too). A few months back they brought the subject up in one of the daily articles... so it had to have been brought up in serious R&D discussion at some point recently.

My third most likely announcement is that they've run out of card ideas after 10,000+ cards, they simply can't make any more new ones and will suggest we play Monopoly: M:TG edition (that's worked out for Hasbro so far). We will have WUBRG colors of money and use "mana" instead of money. The names of "streets" will be the various planes (like in planechase). We'll get little tokens to play with like "Urza's Glasses" and "Ankh of Mishra".

I can't think of anything that would be so urgent it needs to be announced today (and I'd consider the possibility that the decision to announce it today was made at least a week ago) but they couldn't get it out in time. My guess is somebody flat-out missed a deadline, or it's related to the Kiya-kyushu GP or the player of the year race, or is otherwise affected by what happened this weekend. (For example, Ron Foster, the head of OP for Japan is currently in Japan, and they might need him to sign off on the announcement of Japanese events, just to make sure someone spells the place names correctly)

If it's just a cockup, then perhaps it's time to announce the next Duel Decks? Nicol versus the world, with 1 rare in the Nicol Bollas deck and 7 alternate art planeswalkers in the other deck? Count me in for 4!!

Check out my Multiplayer Magic articles on the new site http://www.gatheringmagic.com/

- From the Vault : Planeswalkers. All planeswalkers from the previous storyline now get their planeswalker card, including Urza, Freyalize, Teferi, Tevesh Szat, and the Leviathan who got beaten by Bolas.

- From the Vault : Weatherlight. The entire crew of the Weatherlight, plus the Weatherlight card and the complete Legacy, all in foil. With alternate art. By Kev Walker.

- third set of Zendikar block : Rise of the Squirrels (lead by Karn, now a Deranged Hermit Golem Lord).

"They return. They always return, when I lose everything."
- Karn, about the Phyrexians

SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT AND WIZARDS OF THE COAST COLLABORATE TO DEVELOPMAGIC: THE GATHERING -TACTICS™Online, 3D Turn-Based Strategy Game Scheduled for Launch in Early 2010.DENVER, Colorado, November 2, 2009

Today, Sony Online Entertainment LLC, and Wizards of the Coast LLC announced they are developing Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, an online, 3D turn-based strategy game played within the rich Magic: The Gathering Multiverse.

"By collaborating with Wizards of the Coast, we're able to combine the strengths of both companies to develop an innovative, online, 3D game based on an extremely popular IP," said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. "We're going to be taking the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse places players have never seen."

"The growing Magic: The Gathering community has an insatiable desire for great strategic game experiences. Sony Online Entertainment is the perfect partner to transform the best of Magic's story, strategy and competitive play into a fantastic 'Tactics' game experience for current and new Magic fans," said Greg Leeds, president, Wizards of the Coast.

Magic: The Gathering - Tactics will allow players to command forces of dramatic 3D figures and powerful spell cards pulled from the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse. Players can participate in single player scenarios or jump right into PVP action against other players worldwide, 24 hours per day. Magic: The Gathering – Tactics is expected to feature regular content expansions, a robust tournament environment, an achievement and rankings program, and original stories of the Planeswalkers of Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering - Tactics is being developed by SOE's Denver studio and scheduled to be available for the PC in early 2010, with a version for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system to follow.

About Sony Online Entertainment Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games which have entertained millions of players around the globe. SOE creates and delivers compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchise EverQuest®, its successful online trading card game Legends of Norrath®, as well as the recent kids' phenomenon Free Realms™, SOE continues to raise the bar for online gaming and players worldwide. Headquartered in San Diego, with additional studios in Austin, Seattle, Denver, Tucson, and Taiwan, SOE has a slate of engaging, high-quality games currently in development across new genres for all platforms and audiences.

SOE, and the SOE logo, and Legends of Norrath are registered trademarks and Free Realms is a trademark of Sony Online Entertainment LLC in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

About Wizards of the Coast LLC

Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces Magic: The Gathering®, among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons®, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.

The third set of Zen is going to be 'Eldrazi Mornington Crescent', following on from the teaser 'Eldrazi Monument'. Expect to see Eldrazi Liverpool Street, Eldrazi Ealing Broadway, the dreaded Eldrazi Dollis Hill Loop, and a reprint of Shunt.

I would say bastardx has the right info obviously. Sad that Sony announced it before WotC did, would have been smarter to have it announced jointly. Sounds interesting, depending on how it is done. I probably won't play it as it won't be on the x-box 360.

That makes no sense to me.
If they spelled the ability out on the card in full then it would not be allowed in a mono-black Commander deck, but because they used a keyword to save space it is allowed?
~ Tim

I love this description. Like the cows are sponges filled with milk. I can see it all Nick Parks claymation-style with the cow's eyes bugging out momentarily as a giant farmer squeezes it like a squeaky dog toy, and milk shoots out of it.

56287226 wrote:

56735468 wrote:

And no judge will ever give you a game loss for playing snow covered lands.

blah blah blah, yet another game ignoring the perfect design of the Pokemon TCG put out for the Gameboy color at least ten years ago, blah blah blah

Proud member of C.A.R.D. - Campaign Against Rare Duals
"...but the time has come when lands just need to be better. Creatures have gotten stronger, spells have always been insane, and lands just sat in this awkward place of necessity." Jacob Van Lunen on the refuge duals, 16 Sep 2009.
"While it made thematic sense to separate enemy and allied color fixing in the past, we have come around to the definite conclusion that it is just plain incorrect from a game-play perspective. This is one of these situations where game play should just trump flavor." - Sam Stoddard on ending the separation of allied/enemy dual lands. 05 July 2013

They announced this game with a really ugly 3d render of a bad card? Saying you are partnering with SOE is like saying you're clueless and have no idea they're about to develop a terrible game for you.

I would say bastardx has the right info obviously. Sad that Sony announced it before WotC did, would have been smarter to have it announced jointly. Sounds interesting, depending on how it is done. I probably won't play it as it won't be on the x-box 360.

No fault of sony actually lol, some monkey at mtgsal thought of rightclicking the page and view source, and there it was- the full anouncement in all it's glory. Wotc web-team epic fail at hiding.

I haven't bothered reading any other posts, so maybe someone else has already addressed this. I just want to know why Wizards can't take the resources it's pouring into making this & other online games and instead use them to fix/improve MGTO Ver. 3? Stop making new stuff & get busy putting the little avatars-playing-at-tables graphics back into MTGO! Oh, and while you're at it, maybe you can do something about the constant server crashes & freezes, too.

I pumped a lot of money into an MTGO collection, and now I rarely ever play it. I think Ver. 3 was a big step down from ver. 2; nothing was really achieved, and in fact the gameplay experience is worse, both becuase of a diminished interface and constant bug issues. And now you're asking me to invest in yet another Magic Online product? ...on top of the X-box thing you guys also put out recently? Exactly how much disposable income do you think we Magic players have?

Believe me, if I had an endless amount of cash, I'd be taking the Magic Cruise every year. But that's a whole other kettle of fish...

maybe don't use "announcing" when the product doesn't even involve magic cards. no, pixels in the shape of magic cards don't count. now every time i see "announcing" i won't get as excited as i used to, because i'll remember the time they tricked me into waiting all morning to skim through an article about a video game.

Looks more like Battlegrounds than Chandalar. As someone whose played them both, that's very dissapointing. Battlegrounds was a mess with an interesting idea. Chandalar was a masterpiece with a brilliant idea.

Considering the popularity of EDH, an online EDH centered RPG style game would be a mega-hit among current magic players (although the games tend to be pretty long). Imagine wandering around as your general and battling others with an ante system to collect new cards (cards of your color/artifacts/land taking a slight priority in what you steal from other players and NPCs). Bring. Back. Chandalar.

They announced this game with a really ugly 3d render of a bad card? Saying you are partnering with SOE is like saying you're clueless and have no idea they're about to develop a terrible game for you.

This. Nothing more to add really, but that was a horrible looking render, and SOE just fails on a day to day basis.

The link works now; a nice big picture of Chandra Nalaar, and another chance to play the Shivan Dragon video. But later on, no doubt, there will be more there.

I thought this was a really exciting and important announcement. A lot of people were waiting for a new computer game version of Magic that didn't require an XBox 360, and now their wish is granted.

I don't see graphics as a big issue in the game; it will still be, like the XBox game, a way of playing the card game, with 3D graphics adding a bit of decoration. So I see no reason for the involvement of SOE to dampen the excitement.

Coming up with weird ideas to make everyone happy since 2008!

I have now started a blog as an appropriate place to put my crazy ideas.

I was really excited about Duels of the Planeswalkers, for about two days after it came out. I haven't booted it out of the library yet, but if I need the room, it'll be the first thing to go. I'm not really excited about this either, especially the obvious head's-up that it's going to be an ongoing money-grabber. I spend more than enough on MTGO now; I don't need another game promising exciting new expansions and vibrant tournament play.